Microsoft introduces new AI chatbot Zo

One of the biggest announcements at the Build 2016 keynote was the announcement of bots. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stressed on how bots would be the next big thing. And, these bots won’t be as racist as Tay, hopefully, but they can be fast, polite, very helpful and, in the long run, better than a human for the same reasons. After all, when Microsoft pulled down Tay and apologised for its racist comments, it also promised to rework the AI program to become smarter and better.

And now, the result is Zo!

Zo was first spotted by Twitteruser Tom Hounsell, and at the moment it is only available on Kik. Interestingly and unsurprisingly, Zo isn’t available on Twitter. Microsoft probably wants to avoid Tay-like fiasco this time. It is said to be the English version of the Chinese chatbot Xiaoice. And, it is said to be good at forming sentences, but isn’t efficient to deal with conversations.

“Zo does not yet appear able to construct concise responses, like one would expect from Google’s Assistant. The bot often forms smart, but misguided responses that do not appear to lead into forming a larger dialog,” points out Neowin.

With tech businesses’ increasing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, bots are believed to take the centre stage when it comes to users communicating with said businesses. Some even claim that chatbots are the new apps. They are easy and cheap to deploy and maintain. Basically, they could be on your phone or desktop or other mobile communication devices, helping you book tickets, order pizza, send messages and so on.

All those want to give Zo a shot, will have to download the Kik app on Android, iOS or Windows.